Ryne Sandberg and Phillies rain on Cubs parade

Manager drags out victory in opener at Wrigley Field that brings no peace to home team in freezing park on dreary day

April 04, 2014|Paul Sullivan

Shortly after dawn before the home opener for the 100th anniversary season of Wrigley Field, Phillies manager Ryne Sandberg was trying to get inside the ballpark.

"It was 7:30 in the morning I'm getting poured on by the rain at the visitors' gate," Sandberg said. "So I stood there, and then I figured out I had to go through the Captain Morgan Club, which was packed with fans and cameras.

"So that was my entrance into the ballpark. It was a little tough entry. But just the memories of driving up here, getting close to the neighborhood and then seeing the ballpark … I did it for years and I always felt the excitement as soon as I saw the ballpark."

Sandberg had good reason to be excited on Friday. After all, he was playing the Cubs.

Eleven hours later, Sandberg and the Phillies left with a 7-2 victory, spoiling the home opener festivities, along with manager Rick Renteria's home debut.

It was the Cubs' fourth straight home opening loss in the Ricketts era, and few of the 38,283 in attendance hung around for the end when Sandberg changed relievers with two outs in the ninth and a five-run lead.

Perhaps it was Sandberg's way of saying: "Thanks for making me stand outside in the rain after I helped turn your franchise into a gold mine 30 years ago."

Beforehand, the Cubs were all smiles, moving into their lockers and pumping up Snoop Dogg's "Drop It Like It's Hot" in the clubhouse. That was the last time the word "hot" was uttered. The game-time wind chill was 28 degrees, and the Hawk wind made it seem even colder.

Cubs' swing man Carlos Villanueva was given the "crazy" locker in the corner of the clubhouse near the stairwell, named for its previous two occupants, Carlos Zambrano and Matt Garza.

Villanueva admitted he did not request it, but he is hoping to change the locker's karma. He even went so far as to nickname it "Villa de Paz," which translates to "House of Peace."

"I'm going to bring some peace to this place," Villanueva said.

Once batting practice began, it was time for Chairman Tom Ricketts to come down to the field and make his annual opening day speech about the exciting future of his ballclub, which is now a combined 104 games below .500 since the Ricketts family took control in 2010.

Ricketts explained his idea of selling non-voting, minority shares of the Cubs to help finance the proposed $300 million ballpark renovation. Someone asked if having a better ballclub would lead to better overall attendance, which would lead to greater revenues to finance renovations.

"Obviously attendance is somewhat correlated to wins, right?" Ricketts said. "So, yeah, a better team would help some. But for us the focus is to do things right for the long term."

The focus for some on Friday was the jarring look of the left field wall, where the ivy ended about four feet from the top, leaving exposed brick. The ivy was pulled down over the winter to repair the bricks, the Cubs said, as part of routine maintenance.

"It'll grow back to the top," said Carl Rice, the Cubs vice-president of ballpark operations.

How long will that take?

"Spring," Rice said. "Don't know. It needs warm weather."

By the eighth inning, after John Mayberry Jr.'s two-run homer broke the game open, fans began to leave in droves. Down at Clark's Clubhouse, home of the new Cubs' mascot, fans sidestepped a spilled beer in the entrance way to take photos of children with Clark.

Ricketts left his seat before the end, but at least he managed to outlast Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who came late and left early.

In the nearby box seats in the bottom of the ninth, frozen fans were livid that Sandberg continued the torture, calling on rookie Jeff Manship to face Mike Olt with two outs and nobody on base with the aforementioned five-run lead.

At that point, every Cubs fan could have used a few minutes of peace at Villa de Paz.

The start of the party of the century did not go exactly as planned, but everyone survived.